By all accounts Martin Bormann (sometimes referred to as the "Brown
Eminence") should rightly have stood trial at Nuremberg with the other nazi hierarchy,
and then after the verdict was given, be led to the wooden scaffold and then hung.
But he wasn't.

Instead for nearly thirty years, assorted sightings would surface
that this one time secretary to Hitler, was somehow still alive, and you could take
your pick of any choice location in the world of just where he might be seen. (At
one time Elvis and Bormann offered frequent sightings to enquiring journalists. Both
men seemed to be everywhere but not that I am aware of ever together!)

And even today his death is still controversial in espionage circles.

Instead near the Lehrter Bridge in 1972 in Berlin, his skeletal
remains were finally unearthed. Perhaps a victim it seems of a stray Russian bullet?

Years later a DNA sample was collected from a relative. In 1998
this would certainly confirm that this was Martin Bormann's scattered bones. Later
they would be cremated and scattered into the Baltic sea. (I've read that his son
Martin had also donated a sample, but this has yet to be confirmed.)

Also according to his son: "He was a strict but loving man," no
such praise from his numerous enemies in the party. They saw him as a cruel manipulator,
pitting friend against friend; they hated him but to Hitler he would always enjoy
his master's complete support and trust.

"I know Bormann is brutal," claimed Hitler dramatically when challenged
on Bormanns methods of persuasion. Albert Speer, Hitler's favourite architect, once
wrote: "Even among so many ruthless men, he stood out by his brutality and coarseness."

SS boss Himmler affectionately called the man "Dear Martin." However
near the approaching end in Berlin Hitler would appoint him the executor of his Will.

One personal statement described him as:

"My most loyal party member, Martin Borman" (he may even have
taken that Will in his getaway rucksack. Or arranged otherwise.) Some even claimed
the Berghoff at Obersalzberg (Hitler's then stunning mountain retreat) was state registered
in Bormanns own name. Very strange indeed. So how did this self-educated man reach
the dizzy heights of nazi power, only later plummet to devastation in 1945?

Martin Ludwig Bormann was born in 1900, he would narrowly escape
army service in the War and in the 1920s his aptitude as a bookkeeper would find him
using this talent with local farmers in their numerous paperwork with the landowners.

He would be attracted like so many others seeking an answer to
the countries pitiable plight that led him to the "Freikcorp." Then acting as a local
treasurer during this period, he would somehow be implicated in a murder trial and
would serve a brief prison spell. (His friend in the trial Rudolph Hoess would later
be the commandant at Auschwitz.)

Naturally I suspect he would be eventually drawn to the nazi party
(he first met Hitler in 1926.) Then once a member of the party (60508) he became what
is known as a "fix-it" man. Later at his wedding Hitler would act as a witness. His
wife Gerda Bormann it seems was more pro-nazi than he was. She later went on to produce
ten children for the cause of the party. You even qualified for a "medal" for this
sacrifice for the party.

In 1941 when the Rudolf Hess took his mysterious plane flight
to Scotland the indispensable Bormann, through promotion, had now finally arrived
in the arena of power. This was to be his domain until Hitler's suicide.

He would religiously record Hitler's dreary table talks for posterity.
And he would make it his business never to be far from his master's bidding.

We should further examine Bormann's loathing of German religion
or rather the Judo-Christian devotions. Amazingly inscribed on the nazi militarily
belt buckle were the startling words: "Gott mit uns or God with us." But we have to
state that the nazi leadership were godless men by all accounts and by their deeds
and words they will be judge accordingly. Perhaps some may even have repented at Nuremberg.

(Ironically one of Bormann's mistresses seems to have been a "practising
Christian," and it should also be remembered that his son was once an ordained Catholic
priest.)

To the nazi disciples the awaking of the Nordic race and its historical
gods and religious themes were to completely replace the religion of nazi Germany.
(We never confuse Biblical Christianity with organized religion at this ministry.)
Today much of this paganism has seeped into our own consumer society such as Autumn
equinox, the Samhain/Halloween day of the dead, Yule observance and don't forget Kris
Kringle as well.

Nordic gods so beloved of Wagner operas would unite the nazis
against its traditional enemies, that of the Jews and many others. The Jews were for
extermination, the gods were for eternity or so the nazis hoped.

One example would be the removal of the Christmas celebrations.
But then this was quietly reinstated during the War when events were going badly for
the Reich. (Stalin did the same in 1941.) But in those pre-War days, Germans would
look forward to the people's celebration of the winter solstice with massive pagan
night fires with fixed lights and gleaming bayonets. The Holy night would become Yule
tide. (Does all of this sound familiar to you?) Nazi oaths repeated by thousands would
be solemnly taken at night with fluttering swastika banners used for dramatic effect.
And just look at the runes and SS flashes, another Nordic example so beloved of Himmler.

Now how far Bormann supported all of this nonsense we cannot say.
I suspect his own personal religion was simply his own self-promotion. Perhaps his
loathing of the state church, be it Lutheran or Catholic had come from a slight against
him delivered long ago as a young man. Who knows.

Ironically with the death of his wife Gerda in 1946 his young
children would be placed in the guardianship of a Catholic priest. (A family friend
or secret nazi supporter we might suggest?) And how Martin Bormann would have stamped
his jackboot in anger when his own son would be initiated into the Catholic church.
Finally we must also remember that the armed forces had Lutheran and Catholic chaplains
serving in uniform and in dangerous war zones as well. One also has to wonder what
human atrocities they witnessed and perhaps turned a blind eye to for the sake of
duty.

(On a personal level I first began compiling a dossier on Martin
Bormann in the mid 1960s, with then frequent visits for research to the "Weiner Library"
in London. And my research continued until that file somehow disappeared in the late
1960s. To date it has never turned up.)

But by April 1945 it was all over (Bormannn had even helped to
dispose of his master's corpse.) The Russians were fast approaching Berlin. Hitler
was Kaput. Finally we are informed that Martin Bormann's last apparent words spoken
quietly to his secretary were: "Well then goodbye. There's not much sense in
it anymore....." and with that the brown eminence beat a hasty retreat from the crumbling
burning Fuhrer bunker and into the waiting pages of history.

Update: ex-priest, 80-year-old Martin Bormann Jnr., has been accused
of sexual abuse and molestation, when a priest in Austria in the 1960s. We have highlighted
the Austrian Catholic church in the past, especially cardinal Hans Groer. But for
Bormann Jnr., the sins of the father do seem to keep coming out of the Nazi woodwork.

Update: In his 1996 book "OPJB" the author Christopher Creighton
claims that Martin Bormann, who's Nazi party membership card number was 60508, was
in 1945 spirited out of the debris of Berlin by British Naval Intelligence.
Then brought to Britain he would be given a new identity and offered changed facial
features. Years later he would leave for Paraguay, where he died in 1959-later his
remains would be brought back to Berlin where they would be "conveniently discovered"
in 1972 and then confirmed by DNA sampling. How much of this book is fiction tied
up with some non-fiction is difficult to say. So we leave it for the reader
to decide for oneself.